Everyone should have a motto to help guide their choices. Create a motto, and use it to help make choices when life presents you with opportunities, and challenges. A motto is your life choice "walking stick". Use it to stay on the path, clear obstacles and protect yourself from threats to your purpose. Your motto should be broad and deep, like God's Love for you. God's Love is all encompassing, and it was from that awareness I began creating my motto.

I firmed my motto up in 1980 when I realized I needed to find a gauge to use when measuring the probable outcomes of the many decisions I needed to make. I found myself at a crossroads that was more like a super highway, and I really needed to decide what was truly important to me. How did I arrive at that point? Like most people I was making choices that would echo through out my life without a clear vision as to where these decisions would lead me.

Before I had a motto, I chose to be a mother at a very young age. That decision is what set the tone of the rest of my life. As it turned out, if I had not made that decision, my husband would have died childless, as he died three months before our baby was born. That decision, to live with love first, was the right decision for me. My motto was in my heart and mind before I ever put it into words. It is not always easy to adhere to my motto. I have been hurt many times and had to force myself to keep walking in order to live as I have stated I will live.

I chose to remarry and have more children. Over 27 years of stopping and starting college while I raised my children, I finally achieved the goal of becoming a school teacher. So far,  I have been a school teacher, realtor and have volunteered for many organizations. In each of those activities, I eventually had to make choices about whether to continue or move on to another place or job. When marrying, or divorcing, or recovering from being a widow, or deciding to go back to school, or to take or leave a job, I have had to make choices that impacted not only me, but the people I love. I have used my motto to help make hard decisions, and so far, it has served me very well.

It is not easy to live with purpose. It is far easier to just let life happen to you and then say it was God's Will. I do not believe that is what He intended for us to do. He gave us minds, and hearts and souls, and it is important that we try to find His purpose for us, and live it. Find your purpose, and let it evolve into a well lived life. It will probably not be a perfect life, and you will do things you wish you had not done, because you are human, not divine. Just keep getting back on the right path and centering your life to fulfill your purpose.